It erupted.
Silver light rose around our joined hands and climbed my forearm. My Mark burned black first, then blue-white at the edges, every line opening at once. Astra’s Mark answered under my palm, sharp and furious and alive.
The bond struck, and for one breath the hall fell back.
I felt her.
No thoughts. No memory. The bond gave me presence instead of possession.
Her presence arrived inside the world as if it had always been the missing pressure in the room. Fear. Anger. Grief. Want. A stubborn, blazing refusal to become simple enough for anyone to hold.
I had been raised to steady her.
For one breath, she steadied me.
My knees nearly gave.
I locked them before the room could see.
Astra saw, and her fingers tightened around mine in return.
The basin water spun.
One line between us brightened until the hall had to shade its eyes.
Then the other two lines appeared.
Green-gold.
Rain-dark.
The other two lines remained open, made clearer by the light instead of broken by it.
Linden rose fully from his chair.
“That is not possible.”
Cosima spoke without looking up.
“Apparently it is, as we are currently observing it.”
Every head turned to her.
She dipped her pen and wrote another line, ignoring all their eyes.
My father stared at the basin as if it had just murdered all that he held dear.
Quill’s composure returned piece by piece. Too quickly to be honest. That was how I knew he was angrier than I had ever seen him.
“The record will show an irregular bond event,” Quill announced.
Astra lifted her chin.
I felt her answer through the bond before she gave it to the room.
“The record will show the question and my answer.”
Linden’s pen hovered.
